A Study of Task Difficulty with a Subjective Rating Scale,

Abstract

The results of two experiments are discussed which relate to task difficulty and the effects of environmental stress on tracking performance. The first experiment involved 5 different sum of sine tracking tasks which humans tracked both in a static condition and under a 5 Gz acceleration stress condition. The tasks were designed in such a manner as to investigate workload measures and to compare our hypothetical design to subjective evaluations. The tasks were required to satisfy 5 criteria specified in mathematical terms. The second experiment involved similar environmental stress conditions but in this case the tasks were constructed from deterministic functions with specially designed velocity and acceleration profiles. In both parts of this experiment, subjective evaluations were obtained and compared to the assumption that difficulty is related to magnitudes of velocity and acceleration profiles of the target tracking task. Phase Plane performance analysis was conducted across 7 subjects to study potential measures of workload or tracking.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1982
Accession Number
ADP001152

Entities

People

  • D. B. Rogers
  • D. W. Repperger
  • J. Frazier
  • R. E. Van Patten

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • California
  • Flight Testing
  • Motion
  • Physical Properties
  • Target Tracking
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Methods
  • Workload
  • Workshops

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Aviation Science / Aeronautics.